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Collapsed Retaining Wall
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This is the review I wish I could have read before we hired MTZ landscaping to build our retaining wall. In June of '21 we hired Tony to build a new retaining wall in our backyard. The agreement was that we would pay him 50% up front and 50% upon completion. He began work in July. In early August he requested an additional $5000 because he was running out of money to pay his labor. This was not an add to the overall contract cost, but an advance to keep the project moving. In late August, he accidentally bumped the partially built wall with his bobcat and it collapsed. He immediately asked for more money from the contract to be advanced. At that point we had a retaining wall expert look at the wall. We were advised to stop work immediately. Tony’s plan was to stack the blocks first and then infill with soil and compact – the correct method would be to build two layers of block, infill and compact and secure geomesh into the side of the hill and repeat every two layers. Had he done that, the wall wouldn’t have collapsed when he bumped it with the bobcat. He included geomesh in his quote, but there is absolutely nothing on site that even remotely resembles geomesh. The base of the wall should have been dug at least 4 feet below the ground for adequate support, Tony’s wall was only dug 4 inches. Tony lined the outside of the wall in a plastic tarp, stating that it would keep the dirt from flowing through the block wall. We now know that doing that would have sped up the date that the wall (had he finished) would have collapsed because the water would have nowhere to go and would have caused additional force on the wall. We were told by the retaining wall expert as well as (3) engineers that had Tony finished this wall, it was not a matter of if it would have catastrophically collapsed, but a matter of when. It is a blessing that the wall collapsed prior to completion or someone could have been killed had it collapsed when someone was outside in the back yard. We filed a claim against his liability insurance which was current when we hired him. He let it lapse in August, so they would not cover the damages. Tony agreed to refund us the $20,500 we paid him. So far he has refunded us $0. He also no longer answers his phone or responds to emails. If he decides to honor his word and start refunding us, I will update this review. I don't think this was corner cutting, I just truly think he had absolutely no idea what he was doing. Other notes about working with MTZ: Every afternoon I had to clean up a slew of empty plastic bottles, beer bottles and trash left in our yard. We also continue to find shards of broken glass in our yard. We’re not sure where he got the dirt to infill, but it’s full of trash and glass. He would say he would start work at 8am, but he wouldn’t show up until much later most days. Some days he didn’t show up and some days he showed up unannounced. Ours and our neighbor's irrigation systems were also damaged in the process.
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